Oct 30th - Pepper Specks Across the Sky!

The wind at ground level may have been blowing from the northwest today but it sure as heck wasn't very strong, higher up the clouds seemed to be moving fairly well tho.  The flight today was for the most part extremely high up making the birds appear like pepper specks.  Hawkwatchers gathered today did a great job in finding, pointing out, and identifying everything they could.  Thankyou to all.

Today:
Osprey - 1
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 6
Cooper's Hawk - 4
Red-shouldered Hawk - 4
Red-tailed Hawk - 64
Rough-legged Hawk - 1
Merlin - 1
Total - 86

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 2704  (1461)
Osprey - 93  (110)
Bald Eagle - 69  (57)
Northern Harrier - 192  (244)
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2724  (2191)
Cooper's Hawk - 48  (95)
Northern Goshawk - 5  (18)
Red-shouldered Hawk - 39  (25)
Broad-winged Hawk - 89  (216)
Red-tailed Hawk - 454  (757)
Rough-legged Hawk - 2  (10)
Golden Eagle - 6  (10)
American Kestrel - 302  (561)
Merlin - 111  (72)
Peregrine Falcon - 57  (68)
Total - 6895  (5963)

The numbers in red are our seasonal averages - 2006 thru 2014.

Eagle Time (DST):
03:17pm - BE (juvenile)

Photos are courtesy of Lee...

Oh my!!!

 Northern Harrier (left), Bald Eagle (right)

...and from me...

Osprey (our 2nd latest ever!)

Other Birds:

American Tree Sparrow - 1 along the edge of the bluffs

Common Loon - 6 heading south

Hooded Merganser - 6 out on the lake

Red-breasted Merganser - a few thousand moving low over the lake, most of them heading west

Butterflies:

none

Mammals:

Eastern Cottontail - 1

Eastern Gray Squirrel - 1 little bugger that stole my Halloween candy that I dropped on the ground for literally 2 seconds!

Hawkwatchers:

Lee, Gunnar, Ron, Kris, Rosemary, Dave S, Peter, Betty, Bruce & Ann Falls, Sheridan, Berle, Dave & Mary Beth, Jean, Lynn, Arvo, Bruce F, Vickie and Diana, and a few others who stopped by.  Thanks again everyone for a fun-filled day.

Weather Prediction:

Oct 31st - a mix of sun and clouds switching to mostly cloudy, SW 10km/h switching to S 15km/h  (theweathernetwork.com)

Walter

Oct 29th - Beautiful Day!

Today was a beautiful day to be at the park, albeit very windy!  Thought there might've been a few more birds than what we saw but perhaps the gusts were just a little too strong.  Oh well, we'll try again tomorrow!

Photos today are courtesy of me...

Today:
Northern Harrier - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
Total - 3

Butterflies:
Cabbage White - 1

Hawkwatchers:
Peter, Berle, Arvo, Terry, Betty, and Lynn

Weather Prediction:
Oct 30th - a mix of sun and clouds switching to mainly sunny, NW 15km/h  (theweathernetwork.com)  Hopefully the Red-tails cometh!

See you there,
Walter

Oct 28th - Best Viewing Ever!!!

First off, I just wanted to apologize to anyone who was using the 'social media' buttons on this blog.  Seems as time moves on Blogger is falling further and further off the chart!  I could not update the widget that I was using for the page so it's been deleted.

Today:
Well on a day that according to everything that we've ever learned about hawk watching should have been a 'wash out', our friend Arvo ventured out in the rain and got this amazing shot capturing some of the best raptor viewing that we've ever had.  I mean look at that - a Bald Eagle sitting on the fence and a Golden on the ground hunting squirrels!  Oh my goodness!!!

Weather Prediction:
Oct 29th - a mix of sun and clouds, SW 40km/h and gusting to 65km/h  (theweathernetwork.com)

See you at the park,
Walter

Oct 27th - 18 Birds!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Northern Goshawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 11
Total - 17

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 2704  (1461)
Osprey - 92  (110)
Bald Eagle - 68  (57)
Northern Harrier - 186  (244)
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2718  (2191)
Cooper's Hawk - 44  (95)
Northern Goshawk - 5  (18)
Red-shouldered Hawk - 35  (25)
Broad-winged Hawk - 89  (216)
Red-tailed Hawk - 389  (757)
Rough-legged Hawk - 1  (10)
Golden Eagle - 6  (10)
American Kestrel - 302  (561)
Merlin - 110  (72)
Peregrine Falcon - 57  (68)
Total - 6806  (5963)

The numbers in red are our seasonal averages - 2006 thru 2014.

Other Birds, Butterflies, and Mammals:
Nothing of note

Hawkwatchers:
Ron, Sheridan, Rosemary, Peter, Betty, Hugh, Allison, Mark (from the High Park Hawk Watch), and Lee.  Thankyou everyone!

Weather Prediction:
Oct 28th - rain!!!

Walter

Oct 25th - 4 Golden Eagles and 2 Bald Eagles!

Just a spectacular day of hawk watching with good wind, a great mix of sun and cloud, and a group of wonderful friends to enjoy the day with!  The flight path today was extremely scattered with birds flying everywhere from far north over Kingston Road to way out over the lake and also at every height in the sky imaginable.  Early in the day we had 4 Golden Eagles fly over within the span of 10 minutes and that really whipped the crowd into a frenzy!  Screams of excitement were heard throughout the park!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 33
Bald Eagle - 2
Northern Harrier - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 47
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Red-shouldered Hawk - 14
Red-tailed Hawk - 114
Golden Eagle - 4
American Kestrel - 1
Merlin - 1
Total - 222

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 2703  (1461)
Osprey - 92  (110)
Bald Eagle - 68  (57)
Northern Harrier - 185  (244)
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2716  (2191)
Cooper's Hawk - 42  (95)
Northern Goshawk - 4  (18)
Red-shouldered Hawk - 35  (25)
Broad-winged Hawk - 89  (216)
Red-tailed Hawk - 378  (757)
Rough-legged Hawk - 1  (10)
Golden Eagle - 6  (10)
American Kestrel - 302  (561)
Merlin - 110  (72)
Peregrine Falcon - 57  (68)
Total - 6788  (5963)

The numbers in red are our seasonal averages.

Calculating the Averages - Seasons 2004 and 2005 were not 'full' seasons so they were not included in the equations.  Before averaging out seasons 2006 to 2014 the two lowest counts and the two highest counts were removed.  This method of calculating averages helps to reduce the effects of outliers (the extreme low and high counts) on the 'calculated' average.  (One area throughout the world where this type of averaging is used most often is in sports scoring and judging)

Eagle Time (DST):
10:40am - GE
10:46am - GE x2
10:50am - GE
11:32am - BE
02:00pm - BE

Might be a new record, 7 people contributed photos today!  Thankyou!

Golden Eagle (Ann)

another great angle of this beauty (Mike)

Red-shouldered Hawk (Charlie)

a great angle showing the 'windows' (Arvo)

 yet another passing Red-shouldered Hawk! (Lee)

an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk (Ann)

 a young Cooper's Hawk (Mike)

a young Sharp-shinned Hawk (Lee)

Red-tailed Hawk (Paul)

 a high-flying Red-tail (Ann)

another low-flying Red-tail (Mike)

this young Red-tail is very heavily marked (Lee)

Other Birds:
Chimney Swift - 1 flying over the center of the park!
Common Loon - 9 flying south high over the park
Crossbill sp. - 1 small flock heard and seen flying east overhead
Eastern Towhee - male and female feeding and moving around the west side of the park
Great Black-backed Gull - 1 juvenile bird flying west over the shoreline
Long-tailed Duck - at least one small flock out on the water

a Common Loon heading south (Mike)

Butterflies:
Cabbage White - 4
Monarch - 2

Mammals:
Eastern Cottontail - 1

Hawkwatchers:
Phil, Bruce M, Ron, Mike, Lee, Charlie, Betty, Peter, Allison, Carol, Dave, Norm, Ann, Berle, Pat & Nancy, Hugh, Paul, Manfred, Eleanor, Mike & Leslie, Trudy, John, Susan, Bruce F, Arvo, Gunnar, and many others.  Thankyou everyone for all your help today!

just a fraction of the group today! (Pat)

Weather Prediction:
Oct 26th - mainly sunny switching to a mix of sun and clouds, E 10km/h switching to SE 10km/h  (theweathernetwork.com)  I wouldn't rush to the park!

Walter